Beat espresso in Mariefred. Flat Whites are excellent. Milkshakes, ice cream and cakes. Sit inside…read moreor outside under the umbrellas. Center of old town.

Although it is not located in the castle itself, this is the restaurant affiliated with Gripsholm…read morePalace. It's on the edge of the grounds, and located right off the path leading from the palace to the town. We were never disappointed with any of the slottscafeet (castle cafe) dining experiences that we had anywhere in Sweden. My daughter, who spent much more time in Sweden than me, says that restaurants near tourist destinations tend to be pretty universally good, unlike the tourism situation in the US. Because Sweden has a fairly short summer, most of the year-round business comes from locals, who won't abide poor food, so only the quality places survive. This particular place is a glass walled pavilion style building, which is perfect for a relaxing lunch. I somehow managed to miss taking pictures of this spot, but I'm posting one shot of a railroad turntable, where you can see the restaurant in the upper left corner. Also, I'm posting a couple of other pictures looking back toward the castle, and towards the town of Mariefred, hopefully showing that the location is convenient from everywhere. I didn't see a Yelp entry for the castle itself (I suspect my Swedish search skills are sub-par). So, if you find yourself at this restaurant, do not miss the castle - it's the National Portrait Gallery, as well as a spectacular building. We made one of my all-time favorite day trips to Gripsholm, by taking a train from Stockholm, and a bus into town. Highly recommended.

Cute cafe! The spanish hot chocolate was delicious as well as the pecan pie!read more

It is a wonderful place with lots of dessert to choose from at an old mansion surrounded by…read morebeautiful relaxing nature close to water. It is too bad that it's far away from Stockholm but it's worth the visit.    I have three complaints though. 1. A lot of dessers have nuts in them (I'm allergic), 2. There are not many desserts with berries such as blueberry or strawberry pies which you would expect in a such places, and 3. The quiches (they call them "pies" also) got much smaller but the price stayed the same since 7 years ago (or perhaps they raise the price. I don't remember exactly how much they were). You can see in my photos that they look like someone whipped up leftovers to make a meal. We were still hungry after that. Very sad.    My advice is that to eat lunch/dinner elsewhere before/after the visit at this café.

What can I say? A paradise for the people with a sweet tooth. It is very pricy though and they say…read moreit's a "cake buffet" which its not. It's just a lot of different cakes, cookies and other items - and you pay for each one of them. I'm not that impressed of the cakes and cookies. I like the view and the area more and that is why I've returned more than once, and the reason it gets more than two stars. I could skip the "fika" all together and save the money for something else. But I guess it's something you should experience at least once .. eating sweets until you bursts ..

We got there in the afternoon and we were so grossed out by the amount of flies and wasps attacking…read moreall the pastries. They even had dead wasps on some cakes and it was disgusting. We ended up leaving and I don't think we'll come back to try...

Good ambience and little manor used as a café with a sizeable range of pastries on offer…read more Service is really like a cafeteria, queuing like at bording school but prices are rather exhorbitant. Pastries are ok but this is not Austria or France so all pastries are rather pretty simple cake bottoms with filling and whippwd cream on top or some sorts of sugar cookies ( 7/11 or Subway have better cookies) Coffee comes in one flavour, factory produced percolator brew in large pots for self service... As often in Sweden, the lack of service and high prices ruin the experience even if the basic " hardware" is maybe there... Software ( service) upgrade urgently needed! This kind of self service is ok at the Statoil gas station when you get a coffee for 10 kr. This is a tourist trap, although mainly for local Swedes, but still a tourist trap. Can't blame the owner to do so, if people line up and pay for this kind of experience. Bring your pic nic and find a nice spot in the garden or forest park instead!